As always thank so much for your wonderful God given insight, you are truly blessed and I have been blessed through your teachings!! Recently you wrote an article about being saved, remaining saved…etc…the age old question….. Well, I have a question about this…I know we keep asking and asking but this is somewhat different.
I too believe that once we have been saved that regardless of our sins we are covered by the blood of Jesus. I believe that we cannot help but sin because our body is sinful. I’ve often heard, “You are saved as long as you ask forgiveness of your sins”, or you repent. I was brought up to always repent of my sins so I ask forgiveness every night.
But…. If we are to believe that we are saved because we ask Jesus into our hearts then it should make sense that asking him to forgive us over and over again is like asking him to save us all over again. For example if someone lived their lives by the statement, “as long as you ask forgiveness of your sins” and got cut off at a traffic light began cussing out the driver and then had an accident and was killed instantly, that person could no way ask for forgiveness and would have unrepentant sin in their life as they died so would that person now become unsaved?
I only ask this because this statement is made over and over again and gosh what a burden one would have over their head every day of their lives. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t repent once we are saved because I believe that it humbles us to repent and to have the Holy Spirit to search our hearts for any unrepentant sin. I’m just saying or asking why? Why put that big “if” in there?
The people who do this fail to understand that there are two facets to our relationship with God. The first is our Union with Him. Union is permanent and eternal and was purchased for us at the cross. All the sins of our life, past present and future, were covered there. Once we’ve asked Jesus to be our Savior and have accepted Him as such, our position in eternity is guaranteed and we never have to worry about that again. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
The second facet of our relationship is called Fellowship. It’s conditional and concerns our position with Him now, while we’re on Earth. This part of our relationship is governed by our willingness to confess and be forgiven for the sins we commit after we’re saved.
By failing to confess these sins as we go, we place ourselves out of fellowship with God and deprive ourselves of blessings we might have other wise had. This is why so many Christians live defeated lives in spite of the fact that the Bible promises us an abundant life. (John 10:10) When we confess we are forgiven and purified from all unrighteousness, and our relationship with God is restored (1 John 1:9)
The parable of the Prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) is about this. The prodigal never stopped being his father’s son (Union) and was immediately restored to his former position as soon as he confessed (Fellowship).